2005 Quran Desecration Controversy - History

History

There were over a dozen pre-Newsweek reports in the mainstream media alleging U.S. Quran abuse, including the following:

  • Several times in 2002 and in early 2003, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported complaints by detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison of desecration of the Quran by U.S. guards in Guantanamo.
  • In 2003, an Afghan former prisoner told the Washington Post that U.S. soldiers tormented him by throwing the Quran in the toilet.
  • The BBC reported on December 30, 2004 that the former Guantánamo prisoner Abdallah Tabarak maintained that "American soldiers used to tear up copies of the Quran and throw them in the toilet."
  • In a book review dated January 16, 2005, the Hartford Courant reported that five British detainees, after their release, claimed that they "had seen other prisoners sexually humiliated, had been hooded, and were forced to watch copies of the Koran being flushed down toilets."
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on January 20, 2005 that there were complaints concerning guards who had "defaced their copies of the Koran and, in one case, had thrown it in a toilet."
  • The Miami Herald reported on March 6, 2005 that three Guantánamo captives — Fawzi al Odah, 27, Fouad al Rabiah, 45, and Khalid al Mutairi, 29 — "separately complained to their lawyer that military police threw their Quran into the toilet."
  • The Miami Herald also reported on March 9, 2005 that Guantánamo Base staff insulted Allah and "threw Qurans into toilets."

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